


Flowers in the Rain

by junko



Series: Chasing Demons [32]
Category: Bleach
Genre: M/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-11
Updated: 2013-01-11
Packaged: 2017-11-25 03:47:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/634793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junko/pseuds/junko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Renji has a very, uh,  awkward morning with Rukia....</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flowers in the Rain

At first Renji thought he must have been dreaming of Inuzuri again when he heard Rukia shout, “Wake up, sleepyhead!”

There was too much mirth in her voice for there to be any real danger, so he pulled the covers further over his head and muttered, “Fuck off, Ru-ru.”

A pillow banged his head, “Oi, is that any way to talk to the lady of the house?”

“Lady? Who you kidding?” Renji started, but then stopped when he realized he’d opened his eyes to sunlight and the silky sheets of Byakuya’s bed and not a dusty, dank squat. He bolted upright and clasped the blankets around his naked waist, “Holy hell, Rukia! Don’t you knock? This is the master suite for crying out loud!”

“And fancy finding you here,” she smirked, settling on the edge of the bed and demurely adjusting the edges of her deep indigo kimono. There, were, of course, white and pink rabbits hopping along the hems.

Renji smiled back at her and tried not to seem anxious or obvious as he checked for evidence of last night. Were the handcuffs still here? Shit! He could just see the chains and a hint of leather under Byakuya’s pillow, and, damn, if his wrists didn’t look a bit red. Gah! There was bottle of cherry-flavored lube on the dresser! Though, at least it was mostly hidden by Byakuya’s porn. But, where was the cap? Somewhere in the bed probably. Cripes, could this be more awkward? To cover his embarrassment, Renji growled, “What are you doing here anyway?”

“I live here, remember,” she said with nearly-pitch perfect Kuchiki haughtiness.

Renji tried not to, honestly.

“Yeah, but I meant this room,” Renji said, finally thinking to look around for Byakuya himself. He didn’t seem to be anywhere in the suite, unless he was hiding in a part of the dressing room that was out of sight. “And, where the heck did your big brother wander off to?”

“The sento, I think.”

A nice long, private soak in the Kuchiki hot springs would have been a great way to start the morning. Instead, Renji was trying to act casual while naked in a bed full of sex toys and hoping to hell his best friend since forever didn’t notice anything. “Crap, why didn’t he wake me up?”

Rukia smiled kindly. “He tried. Apparently, repeatedly. That’s why I’m here. When we ran into each other in the garden he asked me to try to see if I could shift you.”

That was a strange conversation to imagine happening. Renji tried and failed a couple of times. So, he gave up, and, pulling the hair from his face, and said, “Shit. I must have been well out of it. Normally, it doesn’t take more than him saying my name.”

“So he said,” Rukia said. “I couldn’t tell, though, if he found that cute or annoying or baffling or all three.”

“All three,” Renji said with a nod.

She wiggled her butt a couple of times as though being poked by some hidden object. Finally, she reached down and dug something out of the blanket. When she held it up to inspect, they both stared in horror at the metal ring in her hand. “Renji, what’s this?”

“Uh… that’s a... a… well, a….” Renji was pretty sure his face matched his hair and was possibly growing darker with each passing second as he tried to come up with anything for it to be other than a cock ring. Finally, he just snatched from her. “That’s mine, is what it is, okay?”

“Yeah, but what---?” When the realization hit, Rukia’s eyes grew as wide as saucers and her mouth formed a perfect ‘oh.’ She suddenly seemed to look around the room for the first time. Renji wasn’t sure what she’d been thinking when she’d first come in and found him sprawled out on her brother’s bed, but it was really obvious what she was imagining now. “Ugh! God, Renji!”

“Well, what were you expecting? Jeez, Rukia, you had to walk past a pile of my clothes, what do you think we’ve been doing in here?”

“Sleeping! Okay? You could have just been sleeping!” She’d picked up the pillow and was pummeling him with it again. “I thought you two had an argument! Do you _never_ keep your pants on?”

Renji had put his hands up to protect his face from her battering, the cock ring clenched in his fist. “No… I….” In point of fact, he’d entirely forgotten about the fight in the sento and now he sort of felt like a patsy for ending up with his ass in the air after Byakuya had face planted him into the tile. Gods, he should never drink. Beer clearly made him frisky and stupid… or, okay, maybe just brought those innate qualities more to the fore. Rukia continued to relentlessly bash him over the head, so he felt the need to remind them both, “But, we did talk! We talked about some important stuff! I swear!”

She hit him one more time for good measure and then tossed the pillow at him. “You’re hopeless, Renji Abarai. Utterly hopeless.”

“Hey, you know me,” he said, clutching the pillow to his chest to keep her from getting it again. He flashed her a sheepish grin, “I’m a sucker for a pretty face.”

“And a horny drunk,” Rukia said with a sigh, settling back on the bed.

“There is that.”

They sat in silent contemplation of that observation for a moment. Birds twittered noisily in the eaves and the smell of an impending autumn rain storm hung heavily in the warm morning air. Beyond the window, leaves in the orchard had begun to change color. The muted light through the clouds was strangely bright against Renji’s tired eyes, but he was surprised how little his head hurt. Maybe mind-blowing sex twice in one night was the hangover cure for him. 

Rukia stared out at the gray day, too, her thoughts clearly elsewhere. She had a sort of wistful, sad expression on her heart-shaped face. What could she be thinking of that made her look like that? Oh, right. Ichigo. 

Renji stretched a toe out under the blanket and nudged Rukia’s thigh. “All your friends leave today, don’t they? You doing okay?”

She shrugged.

“You going back with him?”

“I belong here,” Rukia said resolutely, but he could see how hard this was for her in her eyes. But she pulled herself up, as though shaking off a growing funk, and seemed to make a conscious effort to change the subject. “Are you off probation or whatever yet? When do you go back to work?”

Leaning back against the headboard, Renji let out a long sigh, “I have days yet. Though I have to tell you, it’s finally starting to feel like a real punishment. I hate watching the Division moving on without me. I miss the work and the people. Plus, I’m no good at sitting still for very long.”

Her hand rested on his foot comfortably and she gave it a little friendly squeeze. “You really like being a lieutenant, don’t you?”

“Yeah, who knew, right?” He tilted his head back, but gave her a broad smile. “We’ve come a long way, you and me.”

She nodded, “Sometimes I can’t even remember what it was like before.”

That startled Renji. “You kidding? I can’t seem to forget. Even when I wish I could… even when it gets in the way.”

Rukia gave him a long look that he couldn’t quite interpret before saying, “I’m not surprised. You were always up in front, taking it on the chin so the rest of us didn’t have to.”

“That’s funny,” Renji said, “Because I always think you stood between me and the dark.”

“You mean my dreams, my fantasies. You know why it’s so easy for me to let Inuzuri go? Because, in my mind, I was never really there. I was always imagining myself elsewhere… here, actually, as a princess.”

Was that why she always looked so regal, so poised in the middle of hell, because she was pretending to be in a better place? What was even more amazing to Renji was to realize how well ‘faking it’ had worked—not just for her, but for all of them. Her imagination had buoyed them all up; her pretense at civility had kept them from letting that place take every last ounce of their souls and become mindless, hungry beasts. “You’re amazing.”

She smiled modestly, but then big, purple her eyes met his. “I was just thinking the same about you. I’ve been really lucky, haven’t I? I’ve always had a big brother looking out for me.”

It was stunning how hard those words hit Renji. It was almost like a sucker punch that took his breath away. He hadn’t even realized how truly jealous he’d been of Byakuya for getting to be the one Rukia called ‘onii-san’ and ‘nii-sama,’ until just this moment. When she’d left him to become a Kuchiki, Renji had been so grateful she finally had a family to call her own—people who could really take care of her in a way he’d never felt he could, with resources he could never hope to attain. The relief that she would finally be safe from it all had been so overwhelming that he’d never acknowledged the deep, deep pain of having failed at the job of being a good big brother.

And now she was saying it had been worth something, after all.

He took the pillow from his lap and softly bopped her on the shoulder with it. “Knock it off. All this soppy crap is going to make me cry.”

As always, she completely saw through his bravado, and, pushing aside the pillow, she leaped forward and wrapped her tiny arms around his waist in a big bear hug. Her cheek pressed against his chest, just over his heart, she said, “I love you, Renji.”

He let his arms encircle her and buried his nose in the familiar smell of her hair. “Yeah, me, too. Always.”

“Remember,” she whispered quietly, “I was an Abarai first.”

It was the name they'd picked for themselves, after all. Once there's been a half-dozen Abarais in their little gang. Now Renji was the last very one. Renji ruffled Rukia's hair, and said, “But you’re a Kuchiki now and it’s a good thing.”

“If you’re not careful, you’re going to end up one too,” she pulled away from him with a bright, teasing smile in his face and a poke on his nose. “Wait until it finally dawns on Auntie Massy who nii-sama was thinking of! She’ll either hire an assassin to kill you or make him make good on his promise!”

Renji held up the cock ring he’d had in his palm the whole time. Rolling it tauntingly between his finger and thumb in front of Rukia’s horrified face, he said, “She’ll kill me. Trust me. With her bare hands.”

#

Rukia left Renji shortly after that. After getting dressed and tying back his hair, Renji spent some time getting the bed back in order. He put away all the toys and, eventually, while refreshing the linens, he found the cap to the lube. After one last fond sniff of the cherry-flavor, he screwed the lid on and tucked the bottle into the drawer in the table next to Byakuya’s side of the bed.

He’d hoped Byakuya would make his way back to the master suite, but when Renji ran into Eishirō on his way to the kitchens he found out that another slew of relatives were making their rounds. “Yes,” Eishirō added hurriedly, loaded down with a tea tray, “I’m glad to have seen you, lieutenant. His lordship meant to send his apologies earlier, but I’m afraid I was delayed with all the excitement.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Renji said. “Let him know I’m headed back to the Division, though, would you? I’ll try to catch up with him later.”

“Very good, sir.”

#

Of course, the storm broke just as Renji decide to make the long dash across the estate grounds to the gate to the Sixth. Even with shunpō, he ended up dripping and muddy by the time he made it to the division’s headquarters. The Third looked up when he appeared in the door. Automatically, he stood at attention, “Lieutenant.”

“At ease,” Renji said. “And, anyway, I’m still on leave, remember?”

“Ugh,” the Third sighed, slumping back into the seat behind Renji’s desk. “How much longer?”

“Feels like forever,” Renji agreed. He went over to where he knew the Third always kept a warm pot of water for tea. Pulling out two bowls from the cupboard, he started making them each a cup. “How’s things going?”

“For the most part it’s been quiet; people are catching their breaths after everything. We’ve added some of our more restless people to the construction crews that the Ninth organized, but a lot of that work is already finishing up. And, that seventh seat of yours—Kinjo?—he’s going to start a fight soon just to have something to do.”

Renji brought the bowl over and set it at the Third’s elbow. “That’s why I think you should let me into the practice yard. Or, you got to start running drills yourself.”

“When do I have the time?” the Third snapped. “How do you keep up with all this paperwork? And when is the captain coming back to take care of the pile waiting for him?”

“He’s got family duties right now,” Renji said apologetically. “But, I’ll get whatever needs his mark over there tonight. Leave it with me. And, listen, why don’t I round up some of the guys who are giving you trouble? I’ll take them to the underground training grounds and let them blow off some steam with me. That way I’m not in everyone’s face, but I can help out a little.”

“My god that would be a relief.”

Renji smiled, “Consider it done. Do you think you could do me another favor?” The Third glanced at him nervously over the rim of his tea bowl. “When you get the time, I really, really need to send a thank you note and some flowers over to the captains of the Eight and Thirteenth.”

The Third looked relieved, “Oh, sure. I can do that for you, sir. Pink for Captain Kyōraku, of course, anything in particular for Ukitake?”

Renji shrugged, “I have no idea what he likes. You should probably try to connect with his Thirds, but make sure the cost comes out of my personal account, okay?”

The Third gave Renji a long, dubious look. “So you want me to send only what you can afford?”

“Yeah, okay, just keep a tally of what I owe.”

“Yes, sir.”

#

Renji wasn’t quite sure how it happened but he ended up talked into showing off bankai to many cheers and applause. Zabimaru preened happily under all the attention, and revealed to Renji that he might have a new trick to show off soon, some kind of canon. But Renji had to promise to make more time for training before Zabimaru would give it over. “I will,” he told Zabimaru as it collapsed back into sealed state. “Stretching out like this, it’s good for both of us.”

He spent much of the rest of the afternoon with guys from the division, doing some much needed bonding. Even though it was dry and warm under Urahara's constant sun, someone built a fire. They hung out around it, in between bouts of training, just relaxing and shooting the breeze.

Renji heard that Hisagi had gotten out from the basement in the Second and had gone back to throwing himself headlong into work. He was not only organizing all the clean-up and rebuilding crews, but a new issue of the Seireitei Communication was actually coming out again. Everyone thought that last bit was kind of crazy since they all figured it would either have to feature a huge headline screaming “Traitors!” which no one wanted to read, or a bunch of fluff articles that would just look like no one wanted to talk about what had really gone on. 

“Well, he’s going to take a risk either way,” Renji agreed. “Might as well publish something and go from there.” He personally hoped Hisagi just took on the betrayal stuff head-on, but, either way, Renji made a mental note to get a shikai article started for next time.

When he asked after Kira, he found out that the First Division had made a rather startling decision to delay trials for anyone involved in the ryoka invasion and/or Aizen’s betrayal. 

“How the hell are they going to maintain order over there at the Third?” Kinjo wanted to know, as he tossed another stick on to the fire, making sparks shoot out. His perpetually scratchy voice sounded like a snarl, “It’d be smarter to just issue a blanket pardon.”

Renji had to agree, especially given his own precarious position, but he thought he knew the answer. “It’s Kenpachi. If they issue amnesty to everyone who went rogue during the invasion, they’d have to absolve Zaraki, too. They want to have something big, like treason, to be able to use against him in case they think they need it.”

“Meanwhile, Kira looks like a rat.” Kinjo tossed another stick at the fire. “Why don’t they just go after Zaraki now?”

“Because they might need him,” Renji said, surprising himself with his own cynicism. “Especially against Azien’s army.”

After that, everyone fell into speculating about what was coming next and how they might prepare for it. 

It was late when Renji finally headed back to the estate. Since he had no idea if Byakuya would have time to share dinner with him, Renji took the long way back, by way of the food vendor alley with the intention of picking something up, just in case.

That’s when he heard a familiar voice call out to him, “Ah, Mr. Renji! How wonderful to run into you! Now I can thank you personally for the lovely flowers. But, I’m curious, when did I become the object of your affection? Or, is it the entirety of the Sixth Division that suddenly adores me?”

Renji turned to see a broadly smiling Captain Kyōraku coming his way. The rain had blown through quickly, leaving the day damp, gray and windy. The air caught the edges the pink kimono and haori over Kyōraku’s massive shoulders and fluttered them like a layered cape in his wake. The captain's colors were bright and cheery in the dark, wet streets.

Kyōraku held on to his straw traveling hat to keep it from tumbling away in the strong breeze. It was only when Kyōraku was standing beside him did Renji noticed the quiet, bespectacled Lieutenant Ise following a few steps behind, her arms wrapped around a bundle of papers.

“It’s been unrequited love from first sight,” Renji teased as dryly as he could muster. “What can I say? I swoon for big bear noblemen.”

“Liar,” Kyōraku pursed his lips in half-amused smile and half-grimace. “You break my heart with such false flattery. I know exactly what kind of nobleman you go for.”

Renji shot a glance at Ise, who simply stared back at him challengingly. She was tiny and prissy-looking with her hair tied back neatly, but she also always scared the crap out of Renji. He was never sure why; maybe it was a combination of that intense look she always had on her face and because she had the confidence to wander around the Seireitei without her zanpakutō.

“So, the flowers,” Kyōraku was saying. “I take it things… improved with said nobleman?”

“Holy crap,” Renji said enthusiastically. “Whatever you said? Say more!”

“It was my partner who managed to make the best impression, I think,” Kyōraku noted. “I can’t say that Mr. Byakuya puts much stock into any opinion I might have. I think he thinks I’m a drunk.”

“Oh, no one thinks that, sir!”

Clearly, Kyōraku found Renji’s far-too-quick response deeply amusing. He roared with laughter, and gave Renji a hearty slap on the back. “I’m sure they don’t,” he said. “But, speaking of drink, can I buy you one? Perhaps you’d like to join us? I was just one my way to settle in with Jūshirō for the night.”

Renji already found himself being turned in the direction of the Thirteenth’s barracks. He wanted to head back to the estate, but, somehow, his feet were already going the opposite direction. He pointed behind him, desperately, “But, I really should…. I….”

“I insist!”

When Kyōraku had Ise run a message to Byakuya’s estate explaining where Renji would be, he realized he really had no choice. He surrendered to Kyōraku’s gregarious nature. Anyway, what was the harm in a few drinks with two captains? It would be fun... right?


End file.
